I thought it was about time I got around to reading something by Margaret Thomson Davis, my mum was a fan of her books years ago.

The Clydesiders begins in 1914, just before the outbreak of war and Virginia is in service, not allowed to be seen by the family she was working for. She’s from the east end of Glasgow where life was grim and the houses insanitary, overcrowded and infested with vermin. There really wasn’t any space for her to live at home with her parents and two older brothers, but life working for the Cartwright family wasn’t easy either. The book ends in 1920.

I really enjoyed this, the story is woven around actual facts and I always like social history, I’d really rather know about what was going on in ordinary people’s lives than the aristocracy.

In Glasgow during World War 1 living conditions for the majority of the population were dire and it caused a lot of social unrest. The landlords kept putting up the rent on flats which were really unfit for human habitation and something had to give, especially when you consider that most of the menfolks were off fighting in the trenches.

Men like John Maclean, a teacher, fought against the oppression of the people and there were rent strikes and riots in the streets. The name Red Clydeside was coined and in 1919 the British government sent tanks into the streets of Glasgow. The men were only asking for a maximum 40 hour working week, and after serving in the war I don’t think that that was too much to ask. Bolshevism was the terror of the day, given that the Russians had just had a revolution, but it was a terrible response to men who had spent the last four years fighting for King and Country. Most of the working men didn’t have a vote at the time as you had to own property before you could vote, so the Suffragettes weren’t the only people in need of voting rights.

I read this as part of the 2014 Read Scotland Challenge.